North Central High School Distinguished Alumnus

RICHARD GUY

Class of 1950Inducted 1998

Richard Guy attended Gonzaga University after graduating from North Central High School in 1950. After serving two years as an army infantry officer, he returned to Gonzaga and earned his law degree in 1959.

As an officer in the Army Reserve, Richard served in the Judge Advocate General Corps. He then joined the state attorney general’s office and later became a criminal deputy prosecutor for Spokane County. In that office he advanced to positions as Civil Deputy and Chief Criminal Deputy.

After working as attorney for the Speaker of Washington’s House of Representatives and a short time in private practice, he began arranging investment opportunities in Ghana and Ethiopia. In 1977 he returned to Spokane and was appointed, and later elected, to the Spokane County Superior Court bench.

Justice Guy was appointed to the Washington Supreme Court in 1989 and won reelection in 1990 and 1994. In November of 1998 his colleagues on the court named him to serve as Chief Justice, the ceremonial and administrative head of Washington’s judicial system.

Justice Guy lobbied for the restructuring of the judicial system to make the courts more efficient and accessible. He retired in 2001 after more than 40 years as an attorney and judge.